Shuri the Huntress
| upkeep_cost = | req = None | moves = | melee = | ranged = | defense = | resist = | hits = | item_slot_1 = | item_slot_2 = | item_slot_3 = | abilities = Ranged Attack x8 Blademaster Pathfinding | random_abilities = 1 (Fighter) }} Shuri the Huntress is one of the 35 Hero units featured in Master of Magic. Shuri is a non-Champion Hero. She may randomly appear for hire, in which case her Hiring Cost is by default. Alternatively, Shuri can be summoned using the Summon Hero spell (or through partial failure of the Summon Champion spell), and can occasionally be found as a Prisoner reward after a successful Encounter. Shuri is initially an unimpressive fighter, though she can alternate between equally-powerful and . However, her innate Blademaster ability increases her combat capabilities, especially as she gains Experience. Her extra Random Ability, chosen from the "Fighter" category, has a good chance of improving her attack properties even further. Sadly, none of Shuri'''s defensive attributes are too impressive, with a very-low , mediocre , and a slightly-elevated count. This makes her extremely vulnerable until heavy armor can be found for her. '''Shuri may be equipped with the basic fare of Magical Items, and can additionally be equipped with a Bow instead of a melee weapon, to increase the power of her Ranged Attack. She will not be able to cast spells, and thus can focus on gaining bonuses to her defensive properties. Shuri is also an excellent support-hero for getting armies rapidly across the terrain. Her Pathfinding ability allows her and any unit stacked with her to enter any tile at a cost of only 0.5 Movement Points, regardless of Terrain. In an already fast-moving stack, this ability can allow very easy maneuvering of armies. On her own, Shuri can also double as a scout. Shuri's Upkeep Cost is per turn, unless she has acquired the Noble ability. General Description Shuri the Huntress is an accomplished tracker and stalker. Her travels have taken her far and wide across the land, and have taught her survival skills well beyond her years. She is well-versed in combat with both a bow and a sword, though her expertise in attacking animals has left her wanting in knowledge of self-defense. Nonetheless, improvisation and common sense give her a chance to learn and grow rapidly. Shuri is depicted as having a deep tan, probably due to spending most of her time out in the wilderness. She is a blonde, wearing her hair scattered, despite a blue band across her forehead which seems purely decorative. Shuri is dressed in a light-blue shirt with dark-grey pants, and rides a light-brown horse. Initial Properties All data below assumes Shuri is at her lowest , and without any Magical Items or Random Abilities - After all, any Hero can become devastatingly powerful after gaining several levels and powerful items. Please refer to the tables and chapters below for more information. Attack Properties Shuri the Huntress can make both and . Sadly, both attacks are rather weak, at least while Shuri's is low. Shuri's Melee Attack has a default strength of . With no bonuses, she can be expected to deliver about on average. This is an average damage output for a low-tier Hero, is unlikely to hurt anything except lightly-armored units, such as low-tier Normal Units. Since it delivers little damage, Shuri may need to repeatedly strike her foe, putting himself at risk in the process. Up to 8 times per battle, Shuri may instead use a , which has a slightly-lower strength of . It will deliver an average damage output of , but only when the target is very close. If the distance is at least 3 tiles, penalties apply, reducing this damage output considerably. Thus, a low-level Shuri may struggle to inflict damage on any target that's more than 2 tiles away. Still, it does mean that she can safely attack her enemy without fear of retaliation. Note that Shuri's Blademaster ability will kick in only once she's gained at least one - but will immediately boost her damage output by quite a bit. While it doesn't make her uber-powerful immediately, it does make her significantly more useful, especially against enemy low-tier units. Defensive Properties By default, Shuri the Huntress has a very-low Defense score compared to other Melee-oriented Heroes, at only . This enables her to block, on average, about from any damage source. Expect Shuri to take damage often, at least until she can gain plenty of Experience and/or acquire strong armor. It may be wise to keep her out of combat entirely until either of these is acquired. Slightly mitigating her deficient score, Shuri possesses by default. This is a respectable amount for a low-level Hero, and should allow her to survive a few hits from low-tier Normal Units. She is not nearly healthy enough to take on any serious opposition though. This further serves to discourage taking Shuri into Melee combat, as she is unlikely to survive the enemy's Counter Attacks before being killed off. As with most Heroes, Shuri possesses a default Resistance score of . This makes her somewhat vulnerable to Curses and other combat maledictions. It will take at least before she can become immune to some of these effects, assuming no Magical Items or Random Abilities augment it. Other Properties Shuri the Huntress has a basic Hero's Movement Allowance of . This is useful both on the overland map and during combat. In combat, Shuri's speed is used primarily to keep her away from any enemies. She is not strong enough on her own to take on enemy units, and should instead skirt the enemy line and make Ranged Attacks against weaker units. With more Experience, she might be able to charge in for a Melee Attack once in a while. On the overland map, Shuri also makes use of her innate Pathfinding ability. This ability allows her to enter any land tile for a cost of only 0.5 Movement Points. This means that if Shuri is on her own, she can travel up to 4 tiles per turn by default! The same ability applies also when Shuri is part of an army stack. The entire army may enter any land tile at a cost of 0.5 Movement Points. In most armies, this allows traveling 2 tiles per turn. In armies consisting only of fast-moving units, this can be increased even further (to 4 tiles per turn, at the least). As a result, Shuri can double as a scout, or as a means to quickly transport armies across your empire or make sudden invasions into enemy territory. Experience The following table illustrates how Shuri's various skills and attributes increase as she gains Experience. The effects of the Blademaster ability have already been taken into account when calculating these values. Also note that Shuri always receives an extra Random Ability which may also increase with Experience, and may adjust any of the attributes listed below! Average Damage Output The following table shows Shuri's average output with each of her attacks, based on her current . Note that this table completely ignores bonuses from Magical Items, if any. The effects of the Blademaster ability are already computed into this table. You can use the checkboxes to see the effects of the various Random Abilities that Shuri may receive. Improvement Overview As with any other Hero, Shuri can eventually become very powerful as she gains Experience. Nonetheless, she is quite weak at the lower levels. Both of Shuri's attacks will improve with Experience. They start very weak, but will improve gradually - especially thanks to her Blademaster skill which will rapidly improve her chance. With the right equipment or a good Random Ability, she can eventually match the combat performance of much-more-expensive Heroes. Note that Shuri's deficiencies in defensive properties do not improve very much with Experience. Unless she receives either the Agility or Constitution Random Abilities, she may have trouble surviving combat - especially Melee combat. This increases the importance of heavy armor! Ability Overview Ranged Attack x8 * This unit may use a instead of a Melee Attack up to 8 times in each battle. Once the unit's ammo is expended, it must resort to Melee Attacks. Blademaster * This Hero gains for every , starting at level 2 ("Myrmidon"). * This To Hit bonus applies to ''all of the Hero's attacks. Pathfinding * This unit spends only 0.5 Movement Points when moving into any tile on the overland map. * When this unit is stacked with other units, the entire stack may move at a rate of 0.5 Movement Point per tile. Random Abilities When a new game is started, the program randomly chooses 1 additional ability for '''Shuri. This is called a Random Ability. The selection is done completely at random (while observing a limit on the strength of certain abilities) from the list below: Whichever Random Ability is picked, they are permanent. Shuri will never re-randomize her abilities during the course of a single game. She may, however, pick different abilities in the next game. If Shuri picks the Blademaster ability, this will upgrade her existing ability its to "Super" version. This increases the bonus from Blademaster to every two instead of the normal . Note that 5%'s are rounded down after Shuri's total To Hit has been calculated. The majority of the abilities listed above - any ability except Charmed, Lucky and Noble - can be picked twice. If this occurs, Shuri receives the "Super" version of that ability, which is 50% stronger than the standard version. Charmed, Lucky and Noble have no "Super" version, and can thus only be picked once. Shuri will benefit mostly from the Agility, Constitution and Might abilities, as these improve with Experience and cover her deficiencies easily. Alternatively, Shuri can function well as a support hero with more strategically-oriented abilities such as Legendary, Armsmaster, Leadership or Noble. Armsmaster in particular is useful, as Shuri will often be leading entire armies. Equipment Shuri the Huntress has the following item slots: This set-up contributes to either Melee combat or Ranged combat. Shuri can pick either role, but is often more suited for Ranged combat due to her fragility. Recommended Items Shuri is not an impressive combat unit, at least initially, and therefore requires powerful items if she is to go into any serious battle. In particular, she needs bonuses to her score, which is sorely lacking. The decision of whether to use Shuri as a Melee unit or Ranged Attack unit is also very important. Shuri can be sent into hand-to-hand combat, but will perform poorly if not well-equipped. Though her Ranged Attack is weak, it is often better to focus on this role simply to keep Shuri alive! Weapon :Shuri's weapon slot can take a Bow or any of the Melee weapons (Sword, Mace, Axe), and will thus determine how she is used in combat. Since Shuri is fairly easy to kill in hand-to-hand combat, it is often better to just stick with a Bow. Any bonuses except ("Spell Skill") will be useful, but if you want to protect Shuri from enemy Ranged Attackers, it is often best to go for bonuses. :If you insist on sending Shuri into Melee combat, a Sword is the most preferable weapon - again especially if it has bonuses. As Shuri gains Experience, a good melee weapon can give her a very powerful attack - but it is meaningless without proper armor to keep her alive. Armor :If you go down the recommended path and use Shuri as a Ranged Attacker, try to equip her with a Shield. This will at least improve her against incoming Ranged Attacks. Any bonus on the Shield (or any other piece of armor) is welcome. :Movement bonuses may help keep Shuri alive by avoiding fast-moving enemies. It also allows her to quickly cross large distances on the overland map, and thus can help lead your armies on invasions with ease. A sped-up Shuri can be joined by other fast units to make a quick-moving scout group or flanking army. Note that even Shuri on her own may become a great scout with such bonuses. Jewelry :Any of the non-spellcasting bonuses will be helpful for Shuri, so most Jewelry pieces are useful for her. Note that any attack or bonuses on such items will apply to both her Melee Attack and Ranged Attack. :Again, since Shuri is not much of an attacker early on, a good set of , Movement or bonuses may be better than the offensive ones, but that is up to personal taste. Acquisition Shuri the Huntress can be acquired in one of four different methods: * By hiring her as she comes to visit your Fortress town, * By casting the Summon Hero or Summon Champion spells, * By rescuing her from an Encounter zone, * By Resurrecting her after she has been killed in battle. Hiring Shuri Every once in a while, a Hero will arrive at your Fortress town to ask for employment. The frequency of this event depends on your current score, the number of Heroes already under your employ, and whether or not you have particular Retorts that affect this chance. In order for Shuri to appear for hire in this way, you must meet several requirements: # You must have sufficient in your treasury to hire Shuri (more on this below). # Shuri must not have already been killed in battle. Note that '''Shuri' does not care about your wizard's score - she is not picky about whom she serves.'' Since the game randomly chooses which Hero appears during this event, there's no guarantee that Shuri will ever appear. The chance, however, increases if the number of other valid Heroes dwindles (such as when most other Heroes have died in battle). The default Hiring Cost for Shuri is . This is reduced to if your wizard has the Charismatic Retort. If you do not have this much at the start of a turn (after paying all Upkeep Costs), Shuri will not appear for hire. In fact, if she is picked as the Hero who approaches you, and you lack the money to hire her, you are effectively forfeiting your chance to hire any Hero this turn. After agreeing to hire Shuri (you can always refuse), you may give her any name you choose - she will be known as " the Huntress". Her overland unit will appear at your Fortress town or, if that town's garrison is full, next to your Fortress town. Summoning Shuri As a non-Champion hero, Shuri the Huntress can be summoned using either the Summon Hero or Summon Champion spells. However, Summon Champion only has a chance to bring Shuri to you if all Champions are unavailable at the time. Once the spell is completed, the game chooses a random Hero to bring to your Fortress from a list of all available and valid Heroes. Therefore, there is no guarantee that Shuri will appear when these spells are cast, unless all other Heroes are unavailable. Again, you get a chance to agree or refuse to hire Shuri. If you agree, she will appear in your Fortress town and/or next to it. If Shuri is hired through the use of Summon Hero or Summon Champion, there is no need to pay any Hiring Cost. However, you may still need to pay an Upkeep Cost (see below). Rescuing Shuri On defeating an Encounter of at least moderate difficulty, there is a small chance that your reward will include a Prisoner previously held captive in this Encounter zone. The game can randomly pick any non-Champion Hero to be rescued in this way - except Heroes that have already died while in your service. Your and are disregarded, and there is no need to pay any Hiring Costs. Note that if the army that beats that particular Encounter already contains 9 units, you will never be rewarded with a Prisoner. Resurrecting Shuri For most wizards, losing Shuri in battle removes her from the game permanently. She will never appear again. For -wielding wizards, however, who have access to the Resurrection spell, it is possible to bring Shuri back to life after she has died. In this case, Shuri returns to your Fortress town, with no Magical Items, but keeping all Experience she had prior to her death. You may repeatedly resurrect Shuri each time she dies. Upkeep Costs Once Shuri is in your employ, you must pay her an Upkeep Cost of at the start of each and every turn. Failure to pay this price due to lack of results in Shuri leaving your employ. This is not permanent however: Shuri may still be acquired in any of the above methods with no penalty. Note that if Shuri picks the Noble Random Ability, she will demand no Upkeep Costs - and instead contribute to your treasury every turn! Alternate Names Other wizards can also have a Huntress, but they are different characters (what happens to one has no effect on the others), and go by different names, as follows: Category:Units Category:Heroes Category:Non-Champions